mesbooks Chapter 231 Industrial Ecosystem
Chapter 231 Industrial Ecosystem
Before the news about the patent empire had even died down, Zuo Cheng had already drawn the next picture on the whiteboard.
This diagram is not a product line, nor an organizational structure; it's a network.
At the very center of the whiteboard are four characters: Tianyan Quantum Cloud. Six lines extend outwards, each ending with an industry name: Telecommunications, Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Agriculture, and Transportation. Each line is densely covered with the names of clients who have already connected.
At the strategy meeting, Zuo Cheng stood in front of the whiteboard, with the core team sitting in a row. Yu Ying, Han Lu, Shen Yiming, Chen Hao, Liu Wei, plus the newly joined Peter Hoffman and Eileen Castro, filled the conference table.
"What 402 holds now isn't eight product lines, it's a network." Zuo Cheng drew a circle around the six lines with a marker. "At the center of the network is the computing power provided by quantum computing, radiating outwards along six arteries. Each artery is already filled with customers. The task now isn't to continue acquiring new customers, but to connect these arteries and allow data to flow freely along each line."
He started a new section on the whiteboard and drew four layers. The bottom layer was labeled Tianyan Quantum Cloud, above that was the Tianqiong Constellation Communication Layer, the third layer was the AI Federated Learning Data Platform, and the top layer was the application solutions for various industries. The layers were connected by bidirectional arrows.
"A four-layer architecture." He patted the whiteboard. "Computing power base, connectivity base, data base, and application layer. Each layer is protected by a patent wall, and each layer is endorsed by ISO standards. Companies entering any layer must obtain 402 authorization."
Yu Ying scribbled rapidly in her notebook, adding without looking up, "It used to be product competition, now it's platform competition. Products can be replaced, but platforms are hard to replace because customer data and business logic are already embedded within them."
After listening, Hoffman asked Shen Yiming a question in English. Shen Yiming replied in Chinese, "He said the logic is exactly the same as the operating system, but the scale is hundreds of times larger."
Han Lu didn't speak, but pressed the calculator for a full two minutes before looking up, her voice a little unsteady: "If all six arteries are opened, based on the current customer base and access depth, 402's annual revenue will exceed 100 billion US dollars."
The meeting room was silent for three seconds.
"This isn't an annual revenue target," Zuo Cheng said. "It's logically sound."
The API rollout officially began that Friday. The Quantum Cloud API, Sky Dome Data Chain API, and AI Federation Platform API were simultaneously opened to partners without any barriers; anyone who signed a data security agreement could apply. Internally, it was estimated that several hundred companies would connect within two weeks, but in reality, after the launch, Shen Yiming stared at the backend statistics screen for nearly five minutes before typing out that message.
In 24 hours, 3,172 companies applied for access.
He sent the screenshot to Zuo Cheng, along with the message: "Ten times faster than expected."
But what struck him even more was not the quantity, but the structure. He categorized the participating companies by industry chain and discovered a pattern: the companies weren't scattered; they came in batches. When a car manufacturer applied, its 23 upstream parts suppliers and 14 downstream dealer groups followed suit within 48 hours. When a top-tier hospital applied, three medical device suppliers in the same city quickly followed. When a leading agricultural cooperative applied, seven grain purchasing companies covering the same river basin appeared on the application list two days later.
It's not one company after another; it's one industry chain leading another industry chain in.
Shen Yiming reported this discovery to Yu Ying.
After listening, Yu Ying remained silent for a while, then took out a piece of draft paper and began modeling. Two hours later, she pushed open Zuo Cheng's office door and placed a densely packed deduction diagram on the table.
"Flywheel," she said. "With each new industry partner, 402's data accumulation will drive an improvement of 0.3 percentage points in the accuracy of its AI models. For every percentage point increase in accuracy, the optimization efficiency of quantum computing increases by 2%. For every 2% increase in optimization efficiency, the cost of integration decreases, attracting more customers, and the cycle continues."
Zuo Cheng stared at this picture for a long time.
"This is a self-accelerating system," he said.
"Yes," Yu Ying said. "But there's a prerequisite: the various arteries must be truly connected, and data must flow freely. Right now, each line is still an information silo. Once the data walls in the middle are broken down, the flywheel will start turning on its own. This doesn't require external force; it requires dismantling the existing barriers."
Zuo Cheng stood up and walked to the window. The streets of Hangzhou were quiet in the evening light, and the blue beams of light from the quantum computing center were already lit.
"Our first-year goal," he said, turning back. "To develop 100 core partners in each of the six industries, bringing the total number of participating companies to over 2,000."
After the meeting, Eileen stayed behind alone. She stood in front of the whiteboard for a while and said something in English, which Shen Yiming translated for Zuo Cheng: "She said that Google also has a similar ecosystem logic, but Google's problem is that each team at every level is focused on its own KPIs, and no one is connecting the data between different levels because connecting them doesn't count as any department's achievement. You don't have this problem here because you only have one boss."
Zuo Cheng glanced at her: "So you came to 402."
Eileen smiled, said nothing more, picked up her bag, and left the meeting room.
That night, he sat alone in his office. The city outside gradually quieted down. He opened the system panel.
Within the civilization perception interface, on the map of China, six pillars of light representing different industries simultaneously illuminate, forming a nested structure. The bottom pillar, representing computing power, is deep blue, followed by cyan for communications, white for data, and then six colored bands representing the application layer. These are not six independent pillars, but a tree-like structure. Between each pillar, extremely fine data streams flicker faintly.
The industrial ecosystem, from products to platforms to the ecosystem itself, represents a leap across these three levels, presented visually by the system. Zuo Cheng watched as the six light strips gradually converged from their scattered distribution into a unified whole, and he understood something.
This ecosystem wasn't planned; it grew naturally. Everything he's done—quantum computing, satellite communication, brain-computer interfaces, space photovoltaics—is like a separate branch, and these branches are naturally intertwining.
Once an ecological barrier is formed, no breakthrough by international giants in any single point can shake the whole.
The next morning, Yu Ying saved the flywheel simulation model as a file with a single word in the filename. She looked up and asked Zuo Cheng a question.
"What does the flywheel on the ninth branch look like?"
Zuo Cheng did not answer. But on the system panel, the main quest progress bar moved slightly, so slightly that it was almost invisible, but the line did move.